Junior forward Luke Mitchell helped the Ankeny Centennial boys’ basketball team to a 9-14 record this season. He was named to the CIML Conference third team and was also selected to the all-substate team.
Mitchell averaged 10.7 points and a team-high 5.6 rebounds per game. He was the Jaguars’ best shooter from the field (105-of-192) and from 3-point range (13-of-29).
Here is some inside info on Mitchell:
Congratulations on a very productive season. Overall, were you satisfied with how it went?
I would say I was satisfied with how the season went. Even though our record may not have shown it, we were able to stick with some pretty tough teams. We had a great group of guys that played hard every minute and got along well.
What was the highlight for you?
(Matt) Delger’s first win as a head coach against Valley at home. That was pretty awesome.
This was the team’s first season under coach Delger, who was previously an assistant. Do you feel like the coaching change went pretty smoothly for everyone?
Yes, I felt like the coaching change went smoothly. I feel we all really respected Delger as both a coach and person. He also brought in assistant coaches (Dave) Runchey and (Ben) Lamaak, and all three coaches helped me to grow as a player throughout this season in many aspects of my game.
You were one of the team’s more experienced players coming into the season. Did you try to take on more of a leadership role because of that?
I think it definitely helped me coming into this season having some experience playing last year, but I felt our seniors really did a great job taking on the leadership role this season.
Your former coach, Bob Fontana, was inducted into the IHSAA Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday night, and your co-head football coach at Centennial–Jerry Pezzetti–is already a member of the National Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Is it pretty cool to say that you’ve played for two Hall of Fame coaches in high school?
Absolutely! I am very fortunate to have played for both coach Pezzetti and coach Fontana.
After your team lost at Urbandale in a Class 4A substate semifinal, the J-Hawks went on the road to Ames and beat the Little Cyclones to qualify for state before dropping a 73-53 decision to top-ranked Cedar Falls in a Class 4A quarterfinal. Were you surprised that the J-Hawks didn’t give the eventual state champs a better game?
I thought Urbandale would have made it a closer game given their zone (defense), but Cedar Falls did well against it and Urbandale had a tough time matching up with the height of Cedar Falls.
Did you attend any of the games at the state tournament?
I wasn’t able to make it to the tournament, but I watched most of the games on the live streams.
Who did you want to win the title?
I am not sure who I would have picked given that we weren’t playing, but I would have liked to see a CIML team pull it off.
On the football field, you made 11 catches for 141 yards and a touchdown as a receiver last season. Which sport will you be focusing on the most over the summer, or will you try to do as much as you can for both?
I will be focusing on both basketball and football as much as I can this summer. I am playing club basketball for All Iowa Attack, and we will have camps and lifting for both football and basketball through the school as well.
Are you planning to play a sport at the collegiate level?
I would definitely like the opportunity to play a sport in college. At this point I am leaning toward basketball, but I will see how things play out over the next year.
What are you going to study?
I am looking to study engineering in college.